A friend posed this question about their 17 month old pit. Any feedback would be appreciated

i cant get her housebroken at all.she is good for 2 hours max, and that is only with constant supervision,. she is also pottying on my deck, refusing to go in the yard.. she will only poop in the yard if i tell her in a sternvoice GO POOPY IN THE YARD and point to the yard,otherwise she uses the house and deck as a potty area.. she goes in all different spots, sometimes she goes over old spots.all i do is clean,scrub,bleach, natures miracle, bleach, pettastic, bleach, scrub... she cant be loose at night as she will get up and pee/poop in the house.. so she is crated at night AND during the day while we are at work. .. she keeps her crate IMMACULATE... no accidents at all. i even tried spreading her kibble out on the deck over every potty spot she used, figurng she wont potty where she eats.. did this for a week... no go.. she had no problem eating her kibble thrown all over the deck.. but then decided to pee over the spots where she ate... i keep her on leash at all times when she is not in her crate or crated if i am doing laundry (carrying basket down stairs) or if i need both hands and cant watch her.. i had to buy 2 CASES of natures miracle due to her not wanting to be housebroken.. some folks say its either me or the house, and to take her away for a few days to see if she is housebroken somewhere else.. i have tried everything. all i want is for her to be housebroken and stop pottying on my deck. i am not asking much. she is now 17 months old and still not housebroken.. i have done everything, vet checks for UTI's, natural meds, PPN in case she was incontinent,i even got herbs to use to housebreak her, plus i got a liquid housebreaking solution made up by a holistic vet.. nothing is working..got any ideas?

Is she one of those dogs that drinks obsessively? Like, to the point that she will drain the water bowl, possibly throw it up, then go back for more water over and over again? Mac used to do that and would just pee anywhere once his bladder is full. SInce we've put him on a strict water schedule, he's had no issues with housebreaking.

And is she spayed?

Never make someone a priority in your life when that someone treats you like an option.

How consistent is this owner? Does she physically take the dog out on leash every potty time every day to the same spot where it's okay for her to potty? It sounds like she just puts the dog outside and expects the dog to just "know" where she's supposed to potty in the yard.

Does she have another dog? Does this dog potty outside or is it papertrained indoors?

Never make someone a priority in your life when that someone treats you like an option.

My first thought is that the dog has had too many opportunities to make a mistake. I know when I'm housebreaking dogs I put forth a huge effort so they can't have accidents and constantly take them outside until they understand what is expected. She has 2 other dogs and all use the bathroom out in the yard.

In saying all of that this woman is fairly dog savy so she is very aware of how being inconsistent can lead to problems.

Response from questions is below.

she is spayed,her water consumption is normal like the other 2 dogs. she doesnt over drink, when i first got her she was obsessed with water and would drink until she would explode,but after a few weeks i was able to get her to stop that by having 5 water bowls out always filled,so she stopped obsessing over the water by the time she was 5 months old..i even had her on incontinence meds as i thought she was incontinent, but that didnt work either.. she can hold it in the crate perfectly. in my truck perfectly.. any where we go in stores, no problem.... my house/deck- huge problem... i ripped up all carpeting , cleaned/steam cleaned/scrubbed all the hardwood refinished floors/tile/slate so there is no lingering odor of any old foster pups from years ago..

we tried a litter box on the deck, she wouldnt use it. i tried clicker/treats/praise/party,nothing .. didnt want to use a box on the deck...

Because if she's either crated or leashed to the woman... how CAN she potty on the deck without anyone noticing? What am I missing?

Lol, that is what I was wondering as well. I think they backyard is fenced in so the dog can play out back but the dog chooses to urinate on the deck. I'm wondering if gating that area off would be an option so she doesn't have the opportunity to urinate on the deck.

maberi wrote:My first thought is that the dog has had too many opportunities to make a mistake. I know when I'm housebreaking dogs I put forth a huge effort so they can't have accidents and constantly take them outside until they understand what is expected.

Agreed!

She has 2 other dogs and all use the bathroom out in the yard.

Maybe she needs to fence off an area like you said and put ALL the dogs in that area at potty time. Then stay out there until she's sure they've all done their business.

Never make someone a priority in your life when that someone treats you like an option.

Well... while Faust was potty training I always gated off my porch until he was done w/his business in the yard. The couple of times I forgot he certainly peed on the porch, and even pooped there once because it was raining.

It doesn't sound like a physical problem though, if she doesn't mess in her crate... how is she "disciplined" for accidents, do you know?

i would walk her right into the back yard on the leash then gate off the deck...maybe that would work and after a few times she will realize she has to go in the grass?? lulu is 3-4 yrs old and weve had plenty of problems housebreaking her. she has to go out every 2 hrs and still has accidents in the middle of the night! but she is fine in her crate....dogs are strange!

BigDogBuford wrote:It sounds like something may have happened and now she's fearful of the yard?

Great observation!

I didn't see anything about her taking the dog outside in the front yard...or for a walk...I may have missed that somehow. Basically, the dog does not want to go in the backyard for some reason...but the owner seems to be forcing the issue instead of helping the dog: desensitizing the dog to the backyard, taking the dog for a walk, etc.

"I don't have any idea if my dogs respect me or not, but they're greedy and I have their stuff." -- Patty Ruzzo

"Dogs don't want to control people. They want to control their own lives." --John Bradshaw

It honestly sounds like this dog *is* housebroken. She is just fearful of the back yard (for whatever reason). She is scared of the yard, and doesn't want to potty in her happy house (crate) so the house is the only place left.

~Jeanine

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

there was a thread about this with someone else's dog. The dog's name is Roxy and she also has a second dog with Allergies, His name and her name are on the tip of my tongue.

I think what she did was strict crate time and then out to the yard, only in the crate and out to the yard, thats it. And she reinforced the crap out of Roxy when she went outside.

I'm sure LOADS of outdoor exercise couldn't hurt either (and she could give more special treats for pottying during the walk/fetch/whatever exercise, too!)

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day, tomorrow doesn't look good either.
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"You didn't know of the magical powers of the break stick? It's up there with genies and Harry Potter as far as magic levels go." SisMorphine 01/07/07

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day, tomorrow doesn't look good either.
_______________________________________
"You didn't know of the magical powers of the break stick? It's up there with genies and Harry Potter as far as magic levels go." SisMorphine 01/07/07